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Thursday, May 31, 2007

I know it's been ages since I've posted, but if you've looked at Pigtown*Design, you will see that it's not been a great couple of weeks. But before things went to hell in a handcart, taking the slow road, not the super highway, Cat & Dog and I went for a happy hour event at Nasu Blanca. This new-ish restaurant is where the old Henry's used to be, on the corner of Woodall and Fort Avenue in Locust Point. It's a fusion Japanese-Mexican place which has been completely re-done from tip to tail - and it's gorgeous.

The Happy Hour is from 5:30 to 7:00, Tuesdays through Fridays and offers a selection of tapas and zensai, Spanish wines, sake, and beers. We took a look at the menu and basically ordered one of everything that was featured at the Happy Hour (it was our dinner). From the edamame with sea salt to tempuri asparagus, from mussels with chiorizo to empanadas, and a stunning tuna sashimi, everything was beautifully presented, well-explained and delicious.

Of course, since Cat is a pastry chef, we had to try the desserts, which were also beautiful and very tasty. Cat got a roughly-shaped apple tart with icecream, I got a molten chocolate cake with green tea and a sesame tuile, and Dog got the creme brulee with berries.

We went to Nasu Blanca on a weeknight, and it was very quiet because we had the second floor to ourselves, but other friends went on the weekend and said that it was very noisy. So that would be my recommendation - happy hour during the week.

Friday, May 11, 2007

This was in the New York Times' Food & Wine Section the other day. I am not a big fan of pickles. In fact, anyone who goes for casual dining with me, knows that I border on obsessive about harrassing the waitstaff about even getting a pickle near my plate. So to say that Kool Aid Pickles are about the worst thing I've ever heard of is damning with faint praise. Apparently, they're all the rage in the Mississippi Delta, especially amongst school children. Ewwwww.

There's a funny little corner bar in Fell's Point called Ale Mary's. Comical, eh? It features a range of ales from around the city and the world. Cat & Dog and I met there for a drink and a bite. Dog loves beers, and so does Cat, but to a less obsessive extent. I am not a big beer drinker, but managed to find a perennial favourite drink anyway. They had some seating outside, and lots inside, but we opted for inside as it was breezy and a bit chilly once the sun went down.

We started out with AM's version of pigs-in-blankets, which were tiny cocktail weiners in a spot of puff pastry. Good, but very small. I got a bleu cheese burger and chips and Dog got their hoooooottt wings. I can't remember what Cat got, other than a couple of Belgian beers from a brewery that they'd visited in Belgium.

The prices were good, the service was excellent and a fun time was had by all!

Welcome to Pigtown Pigout

Pigtown Pigout is a Baltimore-based food blog which takes a look at local restaurants, farmers' markets, all sorts of food -from the simple to the exotic - and other things that interest me and catch my eye.

Please feel free to comment on anything you read and if you have suggestions on topics you'd like to read more about, please e-mail me.

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Style Magazine says: Note to Baltimore restaurateurs: Tell your waitstaff to turn on the charm when Fairfax reserves a table. On pigtown-pigout.blogspot.com, the Pigtown resident and former caterer can be relentlesss. Merciful? No. Entertaining? You bet.

“I have fairly high standards and lived with a chef for a couple of years, so I know how a restaurant should be run,” says Fairfax, Director of Development at the Woodbourne Center. “I can be critical if small things are wrong, because I think that if you don’t pay attention to the small things, then you’re lax on the large ones.

For example, we recently paid nearly $350 for dinner for four then it took 35 minutes to get our car back from the valet service at the restaurant.”

House special: this Baltimore native has the inside scoop on locally owned places off the beaten path.

In an article in the Baltimore Sun, Rob Kasper said Pigtown, who also liked the raw rhubarb, said in her Pigtown Pigout blog that the berry gave everything "a warm round flavor."